Disclaimer: I don't own the Hunger Games.
"Ow!" Coral and Pearl squeal as their fingers are pricked and the drop of blood hits the page. Azula has already run into the back of the crowd, to the twelve year old section. I wince as the needle draws blood, but I suck it off as my name pops up on the scanner. "Victoria Marino, 18 y/o." I walk to the eighteen year old section and enjoy the sensation of my last reaping. I immediately notice that the girls around me are chattier than usual.
"What's all the gossip about this time, Pheme?" I ask Pheme, a classmate. I wouldn't really call Pheme a friend. I don't have a lot of friends, mainly just Marlin, Remora, and Annie. "Oh, you didn't hear yet? Well, apparently, Remora went for a swim alone last night, a stupid move on her part, if you asks me, and she got attacked by a shark," she says.
The safe feeling I've had since Marlin promised that Remora would volunteer for Azula or I if either of us were reaped drains from my body. "Is she okay?" I ask hopefully. "Well, she lost an arm, so she won't be to volunteer," she chatters. "I feel really bad for her, I really do; she had a good chance to win, don't you think? Oh no, what's wrong?" she asks me worriedly, Seeing the paleness of my face and the expression projected on it. "Nothing's wrong. I'm just worried about my sister. It's her first year," I say.
But I know that's not why I'm so worried. Marlin was wrong. I am not safe from the reaping anymore. What if Azula gets picked? They don't pick someone to volunteer in the event that something happens to the chosen volunteer. No one will volunteer. She will certainly die: she's never picked up a weapon, except a knife in the kitchen.
I, on the other hand, fish every day after school, so I know how to use a trident, and I'm not bad with knives. If she gets picked, I have to volunteer. Family comes first, even over Marlin. But Marlin would be family if I had said yes when he proposed.
I try to catch Marlin's eyes as he steps onto the stage, but he is purposely looking at elsewhere. Heated anger boils up inside of me. I want to scream every profanity I know at him, but then I would get arrested for harassing a victor, even if he is my boyfriend. He talks to Annie, one of my closest friends, and the victor of last year's games. She went crazy after she saw David, he brother, get decapitated. Poor David, I miss him. He was the only boy besides Marlin in our little group of friends, and Marlin had nightmares for weeks after he came home after being David's mentor. But word on the street has it that Annie's caught the often wandering eye of Finnick Odair, the infamous victor from six years ago.
They talk until the mayor's speech begins. I don't listen to it, though. I could repeat it by now, having heard it for eighteen years. Instead, I try to catch Marlin's eye. His eyes are glued to the screen. The film ends, and the escort, who I don't care about enough to learn her name, says her usual garbage about how great it is to be an escort to District 4's tributes. Finally she says, "Let's mix it up this time, shall we? Boys first! Who will be lucky enough to be District 4's next male tribute?"
She picks up a piece of paper with her three inch long talons. "Ray Bordeaux!" A scrawny little boy from the fourteen year old walks to the stage. When he reaches her, she practically shrieks for volunteers. There is a shout to volunteer, and when a seventeen year old boy steps out of the crowd, a new heartthrob is born. His honey-blonde hair glints in the sun as he makes his way up to the stage. I'm close enough to see his green-blue eyes gaze confidently over the crowd.
I glance up at the victors and see Finnick shaking his head with a look of pity on his face. Annie, on the other hand, has her hand over her ears. Marlin is staring at someone in the crowd. No, he's looking at the seventeen year old section. I realize his brother would be seventeen now if he hadn't been reaped at the age of fourteen the year after Marlin won. He was killed by the other careers.
"My name is River Trinana," the new heartthrob says to the world. The crowd claps, because he looks like he has a pretty good chance to win. The escort walks over to the girl's bowl. Everyone is staring at her, except me. I'm looking at Marlin. She reaches into the bowl and yanks her hand out with a slip of crisp white paper. Please don't be me. Please don't be Azula.
"Victoria Marino!" the escort says. Marlin looks up at me abruptly and tears start streaming down his cheeks. I hold my head high and put a smirk on my face as I walk through the other eighteen year olds. No need for the other tributes to think I'm weak based on reaping footage. As I walk down the aisle to the stairs, I keep my head high even though I can hear the whispers. "Dude, look at Marlin!", "Why's he crying?", "That's his girlfriend, where have you been for the past three years?" I get to the stage and smile sweetly. "Do we have any volunteers for this beautiful young lady?" The crowd stays silent.
The escort looks at the victors on stage. "It looks like you have some of our victors crying. Can you tell us why?" My hands grip my elbows, my nails digging into my skin, but I'm numb to the pain. "Oh, Marlin is my boyfriend. He proposed to me this morning because he didn't know that the chosen volunteer had gotten attacked by a shark last night, and he thought that I was safe from the reaping." "How romantic is that, ladies and gentlemen?" the escort shrieks. River and shake hands, and then we are escorted into the Justice building, where we are supposed to say our last goodbyes to the family that we might never see again once we leave for the Capitol.